TeamViewer for Remote Control app review: access your computer remotely with full functionality

Introduction

This app is designed to help you provide remote assistance to friends and family who are in need of some tech-support with their computer, and you can also use it to remotely control your own computer and gain full access to all of your documents and applications.

This is a great concept for an app but the latest update appears to have gone awry somewhere along the line because many of the features, at least as far as I’ve experienced, have become riddled with bugs; other users have also provided feedback to the same effect so hopefully we will see a swift response from the developer.

"Good Morning, Tech-Support?"

Certain members of my family who shall remain nameless will pester me pretty much every week with some fault or issue with their computer that could easily be resolved if I could quickly access it remotely, so I was pretty excited when I stumbled upon TeamViewer.

The premise of this app is that you can use it to access computers remotely to transfer files back and forth, access installed applications, and still have full mouse and keyboard functionality thanks to the iPhone and iPad multi-touch gestures.

While this idea is great, and this app does have a positive history, I’ve had a real tough time getting it to work effectively; I’ve managed to connect to a couple of friends’ computers, and had some fun remotely rebooting, adjusting settings, and so forth, but when I try to access some of the more advanced features such as multi-screen support, things start to freeze up or just stop working altogether.

 

I don’t wish to speak too negatively of TeamViewer because it definitely has some redeeming qualities; for example, I love the way you can see an overview of the computers and contacts you have or have had access to, and being able to use Ctrl+Alt+Del is especially useful for those of us using Windows – I’m sure you know what I mean!

You’ll need to have the TeamViewer application installed on your computer to use this app; if you already have a need for an app like this then I’d definitely suggest checking it out, but with the small caveat that you may find some of the features to be somewhat temperamental until the developer releases the next update.

 

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Remotely access computers, including documents and installed applications
• Full mouse and keyboard support utilizing iOS multi-touch gestures
• Transfer files to and from computers with remote access
• Become your family’s very own tech-support (although perhaps this should be listed as a con!)

Cons

• Recent updates appear to have affected certain features; this will vary based on whether you are an iPhone or iPad user but you should still be able to get a lot of use out of the app

 

Final Words

Just to reiterate, this isn’t a bad app and it does more or less what it promises, but until the developer fixes some of the glaring issues with the more advanced features, I can’t give TeamViewer a totally shining review.

What I’d like to see is an emphasis on streamlining the app so it runs a little more smoothly, and a finer attention to detail not just with the advanced features but with the general navigation and operation of the app; it can be hard to pin down specific problems when the app as a whole feels a little unstable but I think that with a little TLC, TeamViewer can easily go from being a good app to a great one.